4th qualy of the season, same demonstration of speed, or more accurately lack thereof. Ferrari are still clearly .5s – .8s a lap off the pace of the leaders, despite having spent little of what they have left of their tokens. Had Rosberg not overdone it in his last flying lap in Q3, he would've comfortable been a full second ahead; up until his mistake he had already banked in purple sectors which would have seen him easily break into the 1:34s Vettel's best response? A dismal .8s slower. wonk wonk. To add insult to injury, he has to take a 5-grid penalty for changing his gearbox... Am I the defeatist still? Where are you people who thought we had a shot? Wonk wonk, this is the 4th gp, barring DNFs or mishap of both Mercedes cars, Ferrari stands ZERO chance of challenging for either titles YET AGAIN. Mercedes need to stop drumming up that Ferrari is a threat, it's getting really annoying. They are closer, but close enough to challenge? Definitely NOT, barring a failure or mistake by the Mercs, Ferrari won't see that top step. IT'S OFFICIAL, Ferrari sucks again this season. This time around though, there are no excuses; the car was fully redesigned from top to bottom by the new blood and it has failed to deliver. Mr Black Sweater will most definitely send another raft of people to the guillotine...and Alonso can survive another season without eating his words and regretting parting ways from the Scuderia... WONK WONK.
''Wonk wonk'' You predicted it all so well in pre season testing and first session of the season, why do you even bother watching? Would you endlessly whinge if it was Ferrari winning and no one challenging? Yup it sucks that Mercedes is untouchable (at the very least in qualifying). Engine performance is nearly on par, Merc only slightly ahead on that front. They've build a sensational car. I'm just glad that the fighting through the field is absolutely fantastic so far this season.
I'm going to officially skip watching the rest of the season and just read fchat highlights like I did all of last year. I hope a miracle happens and someone can use this public thread to make me eat my words. I would endless rejoice to see teamred back ontop...it's been a long drought my friend, far too long. Peace out.
Obviously I hoped we'd be much closer than we are, but it seems, on race pace at least, we have something. Not enough I agree, but neither does anyone else. In truth it's just the fact that the rules of F1 in general are problematic.
i honestly don't know why i bother watching lately... ferrari too slow to challenge rosberg and hamilton too unlucky to have a chance lack of close battles make for a boring championship
Rosberg has simply upped his game. Last season I thought that after the championship was won by Lewis he was mailing it in but now I see that nico has cleared his head and gotten on with it. Don't see those 2 asshats toto and Niki smiling and giggling much since their boy Lewis has been the recipient of the very same mechanical maladies that affected nico-karma is a mofo. It's a long season so who knows what will happen but right now its Nico's world.
It makes me wonder how much Merc is holding back. It seems that they just turn the wick up a little bit every race. Just enough to maintain the same gap. Now it appears that their customers are getting the new set up a race later (see Williams).
I would think that is the real question. Ferrari have improved and certainly Mercedes has and what is the true state of the difference. One must think Mercedes have more in hand to cover any challenger when required. I give Ferrari credit for attempting the change and to go for it in a sense. No payoff as of today it appears.
No. Just like in most other sports, IMO theirs so much more to like in F1 than just the naked facts of who won and who became second.
IMO what Ferrari needs are drivers that can work with the factory to develop/enhance the cars. Kimi is an idiot that expects the car to be ready on Thursday. Between races goes AWOL doing whatever he does. I thought Vettel had car development skills, but with the latest results I am not so sure.
It is very simple really. Mercedes guessed right with their engine and the token restriction/no testing policy insures that the gap will never close. Lift it and Ferrari, Honda and Renault would have engines right there with the MB. The best development drivers in the world are useless when you are prohibited from developing....
I agree. Result stats are for number crunchers, not enthusiasts. IMO, people who always expect their favourite team to win, aren't really true F1 fans. There is so much more to watch than the winner.
+1000 And that is a direct result of having to cut costs for what should be the pinnacle of Motorsport...when has having champagne showers and caviar tastes on a beer budget ever ended well?
Some say Mercedes wrote the rules to suit themselves, and the FIA accepted to guaranty their continuous participation. That's why Audi/VW will never join F1 under the present formula.
+1 I've often thought I was banging my head against a wall with this same viewpoint! Sure, Merc are 'the men' right now, but many of us recall not only Ferrari domination, but Tyrell, Brabham and many others over the years. Their turns were good, but they passed. I've noted before, the 'mid-field' & intra team battles are as of much interest to me as who's at the pointy end. Cheers, Ian
They'd be wrong - the FIA was pushing for 1.5 turbo 4 cylinders with additional energy recovery technology, along with major backing from Renault, and it was Ferrari who insisted on 1.6 V6s. Mercedes played 3rd fiddle on setting up these new rules - they just took them and did a far better job building to the Renault/Ferrari rules than Renault and Ferrari did themselves.
What are you even talking about, man? As-of right now, and all of last year for that matter, Ferrari has been the only team to consistently put "any" pressure on the Mercs. Both Seb and Kimi are two of the best development drivers on the grid. Ferrari is just behind Merc in Quali and a tad closer on race pace. Every other team is miles behind. The Ferrari looks fantastic on the track. Very sure-footed. Both drivers enjoy driving the car. No complaints of handling from either driver. Driver confidence is HUGE. Ferrari simply has to develop more pace into their car, and retain better reliability. They are trying. Merc is just "that good" right now. But, even Merc is starting to show signs of weakness (reliability-wise). Every other team on the grid is nowhere close. Ferrari is close. Just not close enough. If Kimi and Seb are so inept, what about every other team/driver on the grid? Do they just suck that much more?
Not entirely sure on this but Ferrari's main gripe was the 4 cil aspect, they wanted more. IIRC it was Merc/Renault pushing all the terribly hard to understand hybrid things. Doesn't matter to them if they attach it to a 1 cil or 16 cilinder engine, the tech is all the same.
What a bunch of light weights we have on here! It's only been 8 years since we last had a Ferrari F1 World Drivers Champion - I remember going through two decades of disappointments and having to wait 21 years for a Ferrari WDC to come along, complete with weekly p:censored:ss taking from school/college friends. Now, after 4 races we have people no longer wanting to watch the races, the season's over already, "Ferrari suck!" etc., etc. It's not Ferrari's divine right to win F1 World Championships, and when teams such as Red Bull and then Mercedes get it right, Ferrari, like every other team has to play catch up. Sometimes they come close, sometimes they don't, but one thing Ferrari never do is stop trying, and the true Tifosi never give up their support for the Scuderia! Ferrari sucks? - Not as much as so called fans who give up on the team so easily!
I have faith in the scuderia, but these rules suck. the no testing rules are akin to a professional sports team not being allowed to practice between games. Stupid. Now if we have unlimited engine development/testing through at least the first half of the season the second half of the season would be much more exciting imho.
But how has he upped his game? Lewis beat him in fp1 fp2 fp3, q1, q2 and q3 in Aus but lost out due to bad luck. He got pole in the next race and got hit by bottas so got no chance Then the last two he's started from the back and didn't get to challenge for pole (despite being faster fp1 fp2 fp3 in Russia and q1. Rosy making a huge mistake in final q3 lap which likely means hamilton on pole) I don't think rosberg has upped his game at all he's just had good luck and i firmly believe hamilton will beat him as soon as its a level playing field again